HHA# 00812 Interviewee: Obi, Anthony Interview Date: March 25, 2013 University of Houston Oral History of Houston Project Houston History Interviewee: Anthony “Fat Tony” Obi Interview Date: March 25, 2013 Place: Agora on Westheimer, Houston, Texas Interviewer: Narmi Mena Transcriber: Michelle Kokes Keywords: Fat Tony, Anthony Obi, hip hop culture, hip hop music, rap music, EPs, mixtapes, solo artists, independent artists, 2000s, Hollywood Floss, Roc-a- fella Records, Cam‟Ron, Juelz, DIY music, 80s punk rock, DIY punk, Minor Threat, Black Flag, the Ramones, DJ Screw, UGK, Prince, chopped and screwed, Rap-A-Lot Records, Geto Boys, Scarface, Devin the Dude, Odd Squad, South Park Coalition, SPC, Swishahouse, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Mike Jones, VICE News, VICE Documentaries, Black Panthers, Houston rap, Houston music scene, Carnegie Vanguard High School, experimental music, local music, regional music, southern rap, southern culture, mainstream rap, A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Purple Swag, marijuana, lean, purple drank, codeine, drug culture, Lil Wayne, SCREWDARGAB, RABDARGAB, OG Ron C, Youtube, Rice University, culture, music industry, 1990s, 1980s, Compton, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Lil B, Childish Gambino, Riff Raff, Fitzgerald‟s, Free Press Summer Fest Abstract: Anthony Obi is a Houston native Nigerian-American rap artist that goes by the name “Fat Tony.” Having an interest in music since a very young age, Fat Tony began making music with a group of friends during his high school years. After the group‟s disbandment Fat Tony released his first song called “Love Life” while collaborating with local artist Hollywood Floss. Fat Tony cites his earliest influences to an early 2000s single called “Oh Boy” by Cam‟Ron and Juelz, two Roc-a- fella Records artists. Tony also pays tribute to 80s DIY punk bands by working outside of the mainstream music industry. Houston is well known for a style of music called chopped and screwed, a subgenre of remixed rap music that has become characteristic of southern hip hop. Fat Tony raves on about DJ Screw‟s original sound and how it rose to popularity right before Screw‟s death in the late 1990s. Also discussed is the genre‟s association with “purple drank,” a cough syrup mixture, and how Houston rap has become synonymous with drugs. The distinction between rap and hip-hop is also defined by Fat Tony, who elaborates on his thoughts on hip hop culture, the state of modern music and currently popular artists including Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar. HHA# 00812 Page 1 of 26 Interviewee: Obi, Anthony Interview Date: March 25, 2013 UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON ORAL HISTORY OF HOUSTON PROJECT Anthony “Fat Tony” Obi Interviewed by: Narmi Mena Date: March 25, 2013 Transcribed by: Michelle Kokes Location: Agora on Westheimer NM: So . you are? FT: My name is Fat Tony. I‟m a 25 year old Nigerian-American rap artist in Houston, Texas. NM: Cool. One of the first questions that I had for you was, how did you get the name Fat Tony? I always wondered. FT: When I was in middle school, I was being a very bad boy so they put us in this special program where every second and seventh period, twice a week, we had to miss those periods and go to an all-boys class where basically some older man talked to the worst boys in the school about our behavior, about how to grow up and be a man and how to stay out of trouble. You know what I mean? Like kind of stay in school-slash-safe sex-slash-let me tell you about manhood-slash-let me let y‟all skip class and eat some free food type deal. NM: Okay. FT: During this class they would show us the Scared Straight documentaries, which was an old film series where they would take bad ass kids to a local prison. They would have the prisoners talk to them about how rough life is and how they don‟t want to waste their lives the way they did. Anyway, we‟re watching the Scared Straight video and we‟re having a pizza party and I started writing “Fat Tony” on a cup, I was doodling. My friend next to me was like, “Aw man, that‟s your name now?” And I was like, “Shit. Guess it is,” and I‟ve been Fat Tony ever since. University of Houston 1 Houston History Archives HHA# 00812 Page 2 of 26 Interviewee: Obi, Anthony Interview Date: March 25, 2013 NM: Cool. FT: Plus I was also a chubby, fat boy and my name‟s Anthony. So it‟s easy. NM: Cool. I‟m trying to have two recorders going on just in case I can‟t hear you. FT: I do that too. When I‟m talking to somebody I have a laptop, when I‟m talking to somebody. When I‟m doing an interview with somebody a have my laptop recording stuff and I have my cell phone recording stuff. NM: Yeah, we have that one, but just in case. I don‟t want to miss a thing. Just in case we can‟t hear you. FT: Awesome. NM: This has a recorder, right? FT: Do you have an app for it? NM: Yeah. Is it a voice memo? FT: Probably. NM: There you go. FT: Yeah. NM: I‟ve got both of them. Okay, alright. FT: Ta da! NM: We have two recordings going on just in case. FT: We‟re live. NM: From Agora… FT: We‟re live from Agora on Westheimer. NM: Awesome. My second question is how long have you been doing music for, when did you start? University of Houston 2 Houston History Archives HHA# 00812 Page 3 of 26 Interviewee: Obi, Anthony Interview Date: March 25, 2013 FT: I started having an interest in music when I was about twelve years old and that was like 2000 or 2001, somewhere around that time. I first started making music when I was in high school around ‟04. I first started making solo music as Fat Tony in ‟07, I put out my first project in ‟07, I think. Or maybe in… actually in early ‟08 I put out my first project but I started working on it in late ‟07. In 2010 I put out my first proper album but I had been putting out stuff before that like EPs, mix tapes and stuff. NM: I remember you came to our school at Challenge, for the talent show? You were on stage and then Chanelle‟s friend, Miriam… FT: Miriam. NM: Yeah, she walked up to the stage. Weren‟t you performing? FT: Oh nah, nah, nah. You got me confused with this other guy but I know what you‟re talking about. NM: Yeah, I thought it was, „cause I…she was something else but I didn‟t know you then and . FT: It was actually a guy that I went to college with that was doing that. NM: You never did the Challenge thing? You should‟ve. FT: Really? NM: You should‟ve. Because I, yeah I met you in that history class. FT: Yeah! NM: We were all, “That dude is special.” FT: Yeah, HCC. NM: We went to that art thing, we had to do that scavenger hunt. FT: That was fun, kind of. University of Houston 3 Houston History Archives HHA# 00812 Page 4 of 26 Interviewee: Obi, Anthony Interview Date: March 25, 2013 NM: That was a long time ago but I remember that. When did you create Fat Tony? When you, well, you started doing music so that‟s… FT: When I was in high school I was doing music with a group of friends and that group kind of phased out, everyone that was in the group starting having different interests. I decided I wanted to keep on making music so I just took my solo name and I started working really hard. The first song I made was a song called “Love Life” that another local artist here named Hollywood Floss made a beat for that song. That was the first part that really made me want to start doing my own solo music because it was the first song I made after this group broke up. I kind of always wanted to be in a group, I never really wanted to be a solo artist. MN: Yes. FT: I was really disappointed when that group didn‟t work out but I was so happy with how well the song… when I wrote it I was like, “Yo, eff this. I‟m gonna keep on doing my thing.” NM: Cool. What kind of group did you want? FT: I‟ve always wanted a group with several rappers in it and a main producer. I kind of wanted a group like a “Souls of Mischief” or a “Goodie Mob” type group where it‟s several rappers and one producer behind it all. That was always my goal, to have a crew. I never really wanted to be a solo artist at first. I kind of just fell into being a solo artist. NM: How do you like being a solo artist now? FT: I like it a lot of the time because when I was younger I was usually the most dedicated of all my friends that wanted to make music. I was the main person for some people that wanted to play shows, to actually record stuff and try to make CDs or try to sell them and stuff. Now, you know what? Now I like it just as much. I like being a solo artist just as much as I liked in a group but I still love doing projects where I can do duos or do trios or whatever, you know.